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Fernley updates planning fee schedule to pass through consultant review costs
Summary
The council adopted Resolution 25‑010 to update planning application fees to reflect outside consultant charges for surveying and engineering review; staff said the city is a pass‑through and city fees are unchanged, while councilmembers pressed staff about internal capacity and staffing.
Fernley adopted Resolution 25‑010 on July 2 to revise the planning department fee schedule to reflect current charges from outside consultants contracted for surveying and engineering plan review.
Planning Director Michelle Rambo explained the change comes after the city contracted DOWL (and other consultants) to provide surveying and engineering review services that the engineering department previously performed in house. Rambo said the proposed fee updates are a passthrough so the city collects consultant fees from applicants and then pays the consultant; the city’s planning department fees themselves are unchanged.
Councilmembers pressed staff about why internal reviews are not being performed despite recent hiring. City Engineer Maria Paz Fernandez said she currently is the only engineer in the engineering department and that recent hires in other departments did not add engineering capacity for planning reviews; Sung Kim, utility director, said the utilities department has two engineers but that additional hires will help reduce reliance on consultants over time. Developer representatives in the public comment period supported using consultants to speed reviews.
Councilman Hannon moved to approve the resolution; the council adopted it 4–0. Staff said they will circulate corrected fee tables and provide follow‑up documents by email.
